Despite ongoing criticism of its policies, and its approach to divisive comments and content, Facebook has thus far stood firm on its stance that it should intervene as little as possible, and leave such commentary active, in many cases, in order to let users see what other people have to say.
Will this make Zuck and Co. re-think that stance?
This week, a collection of civil rights groups, including the Anti-Defamation League, the NAACP, Sleeping Giants and Common Sense Media, have teamed up to launch a new campaign calling on major advertisers to pause their Facebook ad spend in July, in order to send a message to the company that its lack of action is not good enough.
The problem is that this takes an idealistic view, and doesn’t account for the fact that many people will take comments from the President at their word – no matter how truthful, or not, or accurate, or not, they may be.
When the President says that the media is the ‘enemy of the people’, that has real world consequences for journalists, when the President says that Antifa is a terrorist organization, that sparks real concern, and indeed, hate. And these are not the most egregious examples of what Facebook is letting through.
Maybe, this latest protest action will prompt more internal discussion around such, and send a stronger message to Facebook about the related impacts.
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Source Social media Today
